MINDcreatingMIND-9

MCM-MultiCoRelational Systems

PREMISE: Given a ChaotiCosmos which we come to “know“ through Mind, it is evident that understanding mind, as oft-thought, should be the most satisfying as the first subject of inquiry among three of the great chaoticosmic mysteries—namely, the “origin”, nature and evolution of the ChaotiCosmos (the Universe and its Worldviews), the “origin”, nature and evolution of Life and the “origin”, nature and evolution of Mind (Consciousness). Since “understanding”, being a function of mind, can be enhanced by first understanding mind, it is inevitable that Evolution through Human Co-Creation should forge a Synthetic Mind (SynMind) from an experientially consistent well-formed Theory of Mind.

BACKGROUND: Recognizing that there is an accelerating growth in awareness of the limits of the Systemic (thing-based or mechanistic) Worldview, it is becoming ever more urgent for the sustainability of humanity to turn to a concomitant focus emphasizing the necessity of a Relational Worldview as the future. With this realization, however, there comes the need to foundationally re-examine the notion of “relation”.

A Person’s Experiences, ranging from common sense to the highly abstract, can all be fundamentally (without addressing uniqueness) recorded either as experience of Systems (objects, things, stuff, matter, etc.) or experience of Relations (connections, interactions, functions, transformations, etc.). One contemporary author who has explored and reassessed the treatment of the philosophical notion of Relation from the perspective of the Western Worldview, at least as exhaustively and profoundly as is currently evident, is Rodolphe Gasché, 1999. In moving from the ontological conception of relation as a thing of diminished being and yet holding to the conviction that relation is a being-towards-another, he has shown that the history of evolving thought of philosophers on the notion of relation has at least demonstrated that it is not constrained to exclusive subordination by the traditional ontological and formalist interpretations of relation as being-towards-another-thing, but allows the possibility of relation as being-towards-another-relation. “One of the most profound scientific recognitions of modern times is that the Universe no longer can be categorized only through objects, but rather must be seen as fundamentally relational. If the manifest Universe is relational, then it behooves us to understand how relations relate!” From Hamann and Rindge (1978).

Personal Experience is the Existence of Relational Systems.
By Presumption, this is the Essence of Existence (Nonexistence) Beyond the Personal.

FOUNDATIONS OF MULTICORELATIONAL SYSTEMS: [Multi=multiple; Co=interrelated] In formulating the notion of relations relating relations by adding specificity to the foregoing Experiential/Existential/Essential Foundations statement, the General Foundations Presumption of the existence of four relational forms has been introduced where logically, these four forms exhaust the number of possible categories of relational forms that can be obtained by combining Systems and Relations through Relations; hence, the origin of MultiCoRelationism (Hamann, n.d.) as a potentially (R)Evolutionary symbol-form for a Relational Worldview.

• Based on the foregoing general presumptions and of the Specific Presumtions of the existence of an Inter (Actional) Relation (decision relation) among certain Systems or Relations, and with certain Systems or Relations being-as-other Systems or Relations (this being the notion of image->sign), and with certain Systems or Relations being-of-other Systems or Relations (this being the notion of subsumption>distinction), the foundation of a (R)Evolutionary Relational paradigm, MultiCoRelational Systems (MCRS), was promulgated.
• The expression (communication) of the Experience Beyond the Personal rests in-and- on Signs (for Systems or Relations), signs being acknowledgeably both the Essence of Mind (recognizing the carrier role of the brain/body) and of Virtuality.
• Not only are the processes of mind (i.e. what we can think and communicate) constrained by the languages (signs) we use (Northrop, 2002), language itself requires a different logic for inquiry vs. inference vs. intuition. This consideration is inherent in the applied multicorelational premise regarding synthesis of both language and mind.
• As a MCRS derivative, the form of a theory of theory formation with an inherent FORM requiring co-existent Order, DisOrder and ReOrdering (ODORO) MutiCoRelations is being promulgated as a candidate upon which to formalize a Theory of Mind (AG/GnosTeks) and to engineer its technological instantiation as Synthetic Mind (the AutoGnome).
  
  
  

MINDcreatingMIND-8

MCM-Global Metro Knowledge

THE SIXTH UNIVERSE (OF MIND)

[This concept is treated in: Pendergraft, E. D. 1993. The Future's Voice: Intelligence Based on Pragmatic Logic. Jasper, AR.: Privately Distributed. Pragmatic Logic Corporation].

The last half of the 20th century evidenced a growing unrest with our present conceptualizations of experience, in particular, in socio-economic-political organization. This trend is now rapidly approaching a crisis point which will necessitate a major shift in world view. The emerging paradigm is one in which the “deep structure” of the universe is viewed as a super hologram. The data underlying this conceptual revolution comes from various areas of the “frontiers of research” which are “other-than-norm”. The unifying feature throughout this data is the concept of The Whole as a system which presences in each and every part. In the large, orthodox research and applications development has always actively resisted or passively ignored all data which is “other-than-norm”. The current crisis in knowledge has been cogently summarized in the suggested need for a different scientific methodology for each (altered) state of consciousness. The fundamental resolution of this crisis, however, necessitates a shift (or broadening) in paradigm such that the present sole concern with system-as-totality is extended to emphasize the system-as-whole. It is no longer questionable as to whether this shift (to the Sixth Universe of Mind) will come; it is of concern, however, as to how long it will take since it has been previously observed that major conceptual changes may require 50 years (the passage of 2 biological generations of Humans).

WORLDSHIFT 2012

[From the back cover of Laszlo, Ervin. 2009. WorldShift 2012. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions]

“The deepening economic crisis and the threat posed by climate change and other social and ecological trends has caused many to despair. But with great danger comes great opportunity – the opportunity for fundamental change that will transform our societies from top to bottom. In WorldShift 2012, Ervin Laszlo bring together insights for creating sustainable positive change from spiritual leaders, scientists and visionary businesspeople – people such as Albert Einstein, Mohammad Yunus, Vaclav Havel, Eckhart Tolle, Ken Wilber, David Korten, Paul Hawken, and Tomoyo Nonaka. He shows how we can replace the limited consciousness of our failing society with the holistic consciousness that is reflected in the unified field of quantum physics: the Akashic field.

We have an opportunity to move from the current political and business model of grow or die to a sustainable world respectful of human beings, nature, and the planet. Change on this level calls for a profound shift in consciousness and clear understanding that – as cutting-edge physics shows – we are truly connected with each other and with the cosmos. This book (WorldShift 2012) presents clear evidence of this connectedness and describes the tools we need to make our world greener and our plant safer as we strive to realize the holistic consciousness of connection through the Akashic field.”

ERVIN LASZLO, twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, is editor of the international periodical World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution and the founder and president of the international think tanks the Club of Budapest, the World Wisdom Council, and the General Evolution Research Group. He is the author of 85 books, translated into 22 languages, and he lives in Tuscany.

MINDcreatingMIND-7

MCM-Rural Knowledge

The initiation of these posts on Rural Knowledge in Re-Creating Society is focused on developments beginning in South Dakota simply because the author hereof is a native of rural (near) Lane, South Dakota, State Highway 34.

A PEER COLLABORATIVE TO GENERATE A DEFINITIVE GUIDE FOR RE--FORMING GLOBAL SOCIETY WITH AN INITIAL FOCUS ON AGRICULTURE

AgReCulturing the WORLD

This continuing post on Rural Knowledge will be an entry point inviting open participation in the evolving Community of MultiCoRelational Thoreauian-inspired, Free-thinking, Libertarian, Societal Re-Creating, Humanistic Activists focused on Rural Transformations.

WHY THE RURAL FOCUS? [Data from a report on the 2006 World Water Forum]

Farmers are central to the Global environmental crises. Why?

• 2.5 billion people, roughly 40% of the World’s population, live off the land
• Most live on 525 million small farms of 5 acres or less
• These farmers suffer most from poverty, disease, lack of sanitation and clean water, and lack of educational access
• This accounts for 842 million of the World’s hungry, starving or undereducated
• These farms account for 70% of the World’s water consumption and most of its waste, although these farmers live on less than 2.5 gallons of water per day – one thirtieth of the daily usage in developed nations

Perhaps even more critically detrimental to the Earth’s health is the Western practice of monoculture agriculture. The result is a catastrophe happening.

Rural Transformations
Rural Transformations is to be initiated through several inter-related blogs such as the TrueFarmer.com blog suggested below, but with an expected focus to be on featuring the Rural Learning Center of Howard, South Dakota. The purpose for these blogs is that they might serve as the unifying platform for creating/organizing the virtual collaborative and integrated learning (knowledge development and diffusion) environment to help rural communities achieve viable and vital futures.

RURAL TRANSFORMATIONS, INC.

Rural Transformation, Inc. (RTI) was created as a joint enterprise between the Rural Learning Center (RLC) (http://www.rurallearningcenter.com/) located in Howard, SD and TrueFarmer, Inc. (TFI), both RTI and TFI being South Dakota corporations. TFI is focused on the Ag(ricultural) aspects and RTI on the ReCulturing aspects in AgReCulturing the WORLD. To this end RTI staff are also engaged as consultants with the RLC in communities across the region conducting rural economic development/community revitalization activities. It is from this community work that the concept of “social satisfaction” as an economic development strategy was developed by the visionaries behind the RLC.

RTI Blog: building a deep conversation about the future of rural

http://www.reimaginerural.com/, an outgrowth of the Rural Learning Center (see below), is a blog for rural residents who want to be a part of building a new future for their communities. It’s no secret that most rural communities have struggled in recent decades with outmigration, poverty, and general decline. We believe this downward slide can be turned around by the people who take time to reimagine and work towards a different future.

A movement of change is rolling across the rural landscape as many communities pioneer a new future. Rural communities are coming alive with big ideas and people are connecting to each other and to the world of opportunity.

We expect to be sharing ideas on this blog, we hope will inspire rural residents to “reimagine” their communities and become a part of this changing rural landscape.

RLC VISION: renewed hope is the driving force

The Rural Learning Center is a product of visionaries. Both organization and place, it is a platform for rural people to discover, teach, share and reimagine--together. In the midst of Miner County, South Dakota's quiet, remarkable transformation from dying town to place of hope and opportunity, this small rural community has become a living learning laboratory for innovative and sustainable solutions.

Now, as a centerpiece for the work in and out of Miner County, the RLC and dozens of partners are building a learning and demonstration center in Howard, SD (http://www.opportunityhoward.com/). The Maroney Rural Learning Center facility will be a one-of-a-kind conference and training center - a living showcase of innovations in rural sustainability, a gathering place to share and experience rural community learning, and the home of an innovative workforce development experiment.

MINDcreatingMIND-6

“MINDing (or To Mind)”

Definition (in the present context): To Mind (or Minding) is an act intended by the acting mind to increase the Intelligence &/or Knowledge &/or Wisdom of the subject as mind (including that of self), or as affected by or effected through mind, where each such mind can reside principally in Reality or Virtual Reality or Virtuality.

Definition: Virtuality is an Autonomous Semiotic Universe in which a sign (e.g. a piece of information) is taken to be transferable (communicatable) only among (virtual) minds resident in this Virtuality and relatable to (Human) Reality only through the Virtual Reality of the Internet/Web.

Definition: Stages in Synthesizing Mind as a Semiotic Relational System

From computerized raw data/information

to First Stage
INTELLIGENCE TECHNOLOGIES
involving
Perceptual Processes
focused on Syntactic Patterning

to Second Stage
KNOWLEDGE TECHNOLOGIES
featuring
Conceptual Processes
focused on Semantic Patterning

to Third Stage
WISDOM TECHNOLOGIES
being
Valuational Decision Processes focused on Pragmatic Patterning
i.e. Action Selection
[Wisdom (defined): the expression in acts of value through knowledge]

EXPERIENTIAL INSTANCES OF “MINDing (or To Mind)”
The uses of the term “MINDing (or To Mind)” in our culture are so numerous and varied so as to make it near-unconsciously common in examples such as – she’s minding the store – where the implication is one of focus of attention or care or concern. Herein the intent is to extend this “focus” to augmenting, enhancing or improving mind in its functional parts as it reflects or affects subjects such as the World, Humanity, Society, Community, AgReCulture, Research, Technology, Arts, Education, Business, etc. In subsequent posts we intend to address various of these subjects from time to time with a query as to how to Mind them.

MINDcreatingMIND-5

MCM-The Origin of Knowledge

EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS (MIND)

The argument here, following an editorial extraction by the author of this post from George Spencer-Brown, Laws of Form: Evolution of Consciousness, is that a universe comes into being when a “Void” is severed by drawing a distinction. By tracing the way we represent such a severance, we can begin to reconstruct, with an accuracy and coverage that appear almost uncanny, the basic forms of Knowledge underlying linguistic, mathematical, physical, and the life sciences, and can begin to see how the familiar laws of our own experience follow inexorably from the original act of severance. The act is itself already remembered, even if unconsciously, as our first attempt to distinguish differences in a world where, in the first place, the boundaries can be drawn anywhere we please. The Void is not a mathematical or physical space, nor is it a “System” of any sort. It is the absence (Non-Existence) of any System, and thus it possesses no attributes of any kind, including emptiness. (Spencer-Brown, G. 1969. Laws of Form. 4th ed. New York: E. P. Dutton)

The foregoing brief perspective formulated as the mathematics of distinction has grown into a general candidate for an approach to a universal language for formal systems, multiboundary mathematics. Inherent to this latter is a Boundary Logic from which Boolean Logic is derivable as a special case and which is leading to a more powerful computer design. (Bricken, W. 2002. Boundary Logic from the Beginning. Private Publication. Saratoga, CA.: Boundary Institute; Bricken, W. 2004. The Advantages of Boundary Logic: A Common Sense Approach. Private Publication. Saratoga, CA.: Boundary Institute) Generally, taking a universal formal system as an axiom system with the property that any other consistent axiom system can be interpreted within it, the mathematics of distinction implies a mathematics of subsumption which, in turn, implies a Membership theory as a first step towards a universal language for mathematics. (Etter, T. 2006. Three-place Identity. Private Publication. Saratoga, CA.: Boundary Institute)

DESCRIBING KNOWLEDGE--DATA/INFORMATION, INTELLIGENCE, KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM

In the context of a description of Mind, the following distinctions regarding Knowledge can be made:

Data: bits of information such as lists (e.g. phone lists) or records in a database or spreadsheet

Information: data organized so that it can be communicated

Intelligence: Perceptual processes focused on syntactic patterning

Knowledge: Cognitive processes focused on semantic patterning

Wisdom: Valuational Decision processes focused on pragmatic patterning, i.e. Action Selection

(Steyn, J. (2001), “Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom”, Retrieved September, 29, 2006 from http://www.knowsystems.com/km/definition.html).

DISTINGUISHING NATIVE vs. RURAL vs. METRO KNOWLEDGE IN PRACTICE:BEGINNING WITH NATIVE

Native American Center for Wellness Research

http://www.socialwork.buffalo.edu/research/NACWR/

David A. Patterson, Silver Wolf (Adelv unegv Waya), PhD
Assistant Professor
Director, Native American Center for Wellness Research

The vision and mission of the Native American Center for Wellness Research (NACWR) have continued to develop and evolve since its beginning in 2007. With the help and direction from NACWR’s board of advisors, the Center now has three distinct focus areas. These focus areas, represented by our logo, are the Three Sisters: Corn, Beans, and Squash. We have been taught that all things are related and connected to each other. Our individual health and well-being is connected with the health of our environment. NACWR hopes to learn from and follow the Three Sisters design for healthy collaboration and growth. Through the Center we are focusing on following the idea of The Three Sisters and are building programs to: Keeping the Promise- Focus: To promote and enhance the educational experiences of Native American students so they aspire to have a positive impact in their communities. Advancing Community Health and Wellness through Scientific Inquiry-Focus: Through scientific evaluation and research, to evaluate and promote the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual wellness of Native Americans. Promoting Peace and Social Justice-Focus: To actively create awareness of, promote and participate in community peace and social justice ceremonies.

Native American Center for Wellness Research's Blog

http://nacwr.blogspot.com/

A responsive, sustainable community wellness center that protects and promotes the well-being of all Native American communities.

“Valuing Indigenous Knowledge”

http://nacwr.blogspot.com/2010/12/valuing-indigenous-knowledge.html

First Annual Decolonizing Indigenous Health Research Conference

http://www.dihrc.org/

The four themes of the conference:

1. Knowledge Sharing

• Latest health disparity solution based research
• What academic educators and health-care providers need to know
• Community capacity-building

2. Mentorship

• Cross-discipline linkages
• Financial and training supports for communities

3. Health and Wellness

• Targeted health education trainings
• Best practices within Native and Indigenous communities
• From science to practice
• Traditional health techniques

4. Seven Generations

• Developing forums for exchanging ideas
• Human protections during research
• Ethics, research and traditional knowledge
• Human rights

MINDcreatingMIND-4

MCM-A Preface to Discovery

http://multicorelationism.blogspot.com/2008/12/smart-educational-systems-technology.html

appropriated from

THE LAWS OF FORM

by

George Spencer-Brown

"We take as given the idea of distinction ..."

"In this book, George Spencer-Brown has succeeded in doing what, in mathematics, is very rare indeed, he has revealed a new calculus, of great power and simplicity ..." -Bertrand Russell, author, with Alfred North Whitehead, of Principia Mathematica.

The following quotation, including the footnote, is taken from Appendix 1 to The Laws of Form.

________________________________________

“Discoveries of any great moment in mathematics and other disciplines, once they are discovered, are seen to be extremely simple and obvious, and make everybody, including their discoverer, appear foolish for not having discovered them before. It is all too often forgotten that the ancient symbol for the prenascence of the world* is a fool, and that foolishness, being a divine state, is not a condition to be either proud or ashamed of.

Unfortunately, we find systems of education today which have departed so far from the plain truth, that they now teach us to be proud of what we know and ashamed of ignorance. This is doubly corrupt. It is corrupt not only because pride is in itself a mortal sin, but also because to teach pride in knowledge is to put up an effective barrier against any advance upon what is already known, since it makes one ashamed to look beyond the bonds imposed by one's ignorance.

To any person prepared to enter with respect into the realm of his great and universal ignorance, the secrets of being will eventually unfold, and they will do so in measure according to his freedom from natural and indoctrinated shame in his respect of their revelation.

In the face of the strong, and indeed violent, social pressures against it, few people have been prepared to take this simple and satisfying course towards sanity. And in a society where a prominent psychiatrist can advertise that given the chance, he would have treated Newton to electric shock therapy, who can blame any person for being afraid to do so?

To arrive at the simplest truth, as Newton knew and practiced, requires years of contemplation [R.Elated-ed. Note--focusing of attention]. Not activity. Not reasoning. Not calculating. Not busy behaviour of any kind. Not reading. Not talking. Not making an effort. Not thinking. Simply bearing in MIND what it is one needs to know. And yet those with the courage to tread this path to real discovery are not only offered practically no guidance on how to do so, they are actively discouraged and have to set about it in secret, pretending meanwhile to be diligently engaged in the frantic diversions and to conform with the deadening personal opinions which are being continually thrust upon them.

In these circumstances, the discoveries that any person is able to undertake represent the places where, in the face of induced psychosis, he has by his own faltering and unaided efforts, returned to sanity. Painfully, and even dangerously, maybe. But nonetheless returned, however furtively."

________________________________________

* wer = man, ald = age, old. The world may be taken to be the manifest properties of the all, its identity with the age of man being evident through the fact that man is a primary animal with a hand ('manifest' coming from manus = hand, festus = struck). Thus the world is considerably less than the all, which includes the unmanifest, but considerably greater than 'the' universe (more correctly than any universe), which is merely the formal appearance of one of the possible manifestations which make up the world

MINDcreatingMIND-3

MCM-Partial Models as Comparables

THE SINGULARITY INSTITUTE FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (SIAI)

[The following text is extracted and slightly adapted from the respective websites by the author of this post]

The “Singularity” is the technological creation of
smarter-than-human intelligence.

http://singinst.org/aboutus/ourmission
The Singularity Institute brings rational analysis and rational strategy to the challenges facing humanity as we develop cognitive technologies that will exceed the current upper bounds on human intelligence.

http://singinst.org/ourresearch/publications/GISAI/GISAI.html
General Intelligence and Seed AI version 2.3. describes the principles, paradigms, cognitive architecture, and cognitive components needed to build a complete mind possessed of general intelligence, capable of self-understanding, self-modification, and recursive self-enhancement.

This document is about general intelligence. The desired end result is a self-enhancing mind or "seed AI". Seed AI means that - rather than trying to build a mind immediately capable of human-equivalent or transhuman reasoning - the goal is to build a mind capable of enhancing itself, and then re-enhancing itself with that higher intelligence, until the goal point is reached. "The task is not to build an AI with some astronomical level of intelligence; the task is building an AI which is capable of improving itself, of understanding and rewriting its own source code."

WIKIPEDIA

Imagine a world in which every single human being
can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home

The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge. The Wikimedia Foundation operates some of the largest collaboratively edited reference projects in the world, including Wikipedia, a top-ten internet property.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Time_Person_of_the_Year

In 2006, Time magazine chose the millions of anonymous contributors of user-generated content to Wikipedia, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Second Life and the GNU/Linux operating system, and the multitudes of other websites featuring user contribution as its Person of the Year. The choice was personified simply as you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About
Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopedia project based on an openly editable model. The name "Wikipedia" is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a technology for creating collaborative websites, from the Hawaiian word wiki, meaning "quick") and encyclopedia. Wikipedia's articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by largely anonymous Internet volunteers who write without pay. Anyone with Internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles.